The Hamptons look came from the east coast of America: white boards, a broad roof, a deep verandah, and rooms that open onto a garden and the sea. It travels well to the north coast of New South Wales, because the climate there asks for most of the same things. Byron Bay is subtropical: warm and humid in summer, mild in winter, and the sea breeze does a lot of the work if the house lets it.
This concept is two storeys behind the dunes. The living rooms are downstairs and open on two sides, so the breeze off the water crosses them. The bedrooms are upstairs, where the air is cooler at night and the view is over the dune grass.
The Hamptons look is a verandah, a white wall and a roof. On this coast, all three are also shade.
The verandah and the gable
The verandah runs across the front and wraps the living side. It is deep enough that summer sun never reaches the glass behind it, and it is where the house is lived in from October to April. The gable is broad and simple, which keeps the roof watertight in the kind of rain the north coast gets in summer.
White timber, pale stone
Salt air is hard on finishes. The outside is painted boards that can be repainted rather than a surface that weathers badly, and the inside is pale stone and white timber that stay bright on a grey day. The island in the kitchen is where people end up, so it faces the pool through the doors rather than the wall.
What the Studio does with this
Start a home from this look and the Studio sets a two-storey Hamptons house under a gable, pale stone as the finish, and an island kitchen. Tell it Byron Bay and it will open the house to the north and the breeze, with a covered outdoor room off the kitchen and eaves deep enough for the summer sun.
What HWD does here
Subtropical, climate zone 2. Warm humid summer, mild winter. Open to the north and the breeze, with a covered outdoor room off the kitchen and eaves deep enough for a summer sun. Winter asks for little.
The Studio reads the climate from the town or postcode you give it. The zone boundaries follow a map, not postcodes, so it prints its reading as a note, never as a compliance statement.
Draw your version of this home.
Opens the Studio with the gable roof, pale stone and the Hamptons style already chosen. Change the rooms, the block and the state, and HWD draws it for where you are.
